Black Friday (or Black Market) - James Patterson [58]
Moments later, another equally curious item began to appear on the computer display screen.
The second entry was from the Swiss in Geneva.
INTERPOL. RELIABLE LOCAL INFORMER HAS REPORTED “FLOODING” OF GENEVA MARKET WITH STOLEN BOND OFFERS. SELLER LOOKING FOR “SERIOUS BUYER.” AMOUNT SUGGESTED AS HIGH AS FIVE TO TEN MILLION AMERICAN DOLLARS. SOURCE VERY RELIABLE.
“I think this could be the moment of truth.” Carroll stared and gnawed at his bottom lip.
“Something’s happening. But why is it happening all at once like this?”
For the next hour and a half, during which the various screens virtually exploded with new information, as many as a dozen U.S. Army and police officials rushed down to look at the messages inside the Crisis Room. News was being transmitted from all over the world now, all at once.
As bad as it seemed, there was relief that something was happening. Was Green Band finally moving?
ZURICH. PREVALENT RUMORS HERE TONIGHT OP STOLEN U.S. SECURITIES AVAILABLE. VERY LARGE AMOUNTS. HIGH SEVEN-FIGURE THEFT INDICATED BY SOURCES.
LONDON, SCOTLAND YARD. DURING ROUTINE SEARCH IN KENSINGTON, AMERICAN STOCK CERTIFICATES FOUND. SERIAL NUMBERS TO FOLLOW. SUSPECT NOT IN FLAT WITH CACHE. SUSPECT IS JOHN HALL-FRAZIER, A KNOWN FENCE IN EUROPE BOND MARKET. SUSPECT KNOWN TO MICHEL CHEVRON.
BEIRUT. AHMED JARREL ARRESTED THIS EVENING HERE. TRADED THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION… JARREL HAD BEEN ATTEMPTING TO SELL U.S. SECURITIES IN BEIRUT. ASKING PRICE THIRTY FIVE CENTS ON A DOLLAR VALUE. VERY HIGH QUALITY BONDS. SOME BLANK CHEQUES ALSO. JARREL CLAIMS AMOUNT AVAILABLE UP TO ONE HUNDRED MILLION AMERICAN!
Half an hour later, using an ordinary hand calculator, Caitlin added up the amounts indicated on the display screens so far. She gasped as she arrived at the final sum.
It came to just under a hundred million U.S. dollars.
“Samples.”
Next, she made a quick printout of the Fortune 500, America’s largest individual corporations, to check against the stolen securities reported thus far.
Nearly all the thefts were in the top 100 companies. Those reported to date created an unusual, elite universe. Was there a clue or potential lead in that?
Rank in Company Fortune 500Stockholder Equity
1 Exxon (New York) $29,443,095,000
2 General Motors (Detroit) 20,766,600,000
3 Mobil (New York) 13,952,000,000
5 International Business Machines (Armonk, N.Y.) 23,219,000,000
6 Texaco (Harrison, N.Y.) 14,726,000,000
8 Standard Oil (Indiana) (Chicago) 12,440,000,000
9 Standard Oil of California (San Francisco) 14,106,000,000
10 General Electric (Fairfield, Conn.) 11,270,000,000
15 U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh) 11,270,000,000
17 Sun (Radnor, Pa.) 5,355,000,000
20 ITT (New York) 6,106,084,000
26 AT&T Technologies (New York) 4,621,300,000
28 Dow Chemical (Midland, Mich.) 5,047,000,000
34 Westinghouse Electric (Pittsburgh) 3,410,300,000
39 Amerada Hess (New York) 2425,663,000
42 McDonnell-Douglas (St. Louis) 2,067,900,000
43 Rockwell International (Pittsburgh) 2,367,300,000
45 Ashland Oil (Russell, Ky.) 1,084,824,000
50 Lockheed (Burbank, Calif.) 826,200,000
52 Monsanto (St Louis) 3,667,000,000
55 Anheuser-Busch (St. Louis) 1,766,500,000
67 Gulf & Western Industries (New York) 1,893,924,000
69 Bethlehem Steel (Bethlehem, Pa.) 1,313,100,000
77 Texas Instruments (Dallas) 1,202,700,000
84 Digital Equipment (Maynard, Mass.) 3,541,282,000
89 Diamond Shamrock (Dallas) 2,743,327,000
92 Deere (Moline, HI.) 2,275,967,000
97 North American Philips (New York) 883,874,000
By 9:15, the Crisis Room at No. 13 Wall was filled with officials from the White House and the Pentagon who scrutinized the computer screens like gamblers nervously watching the outcome of their bets. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Vice-president were both present. Phil Berger of the CIA had been flown in by special Air Force helicopter from Washington.
At eleven o’clock, urgent reports were still chattering in over the computer terminals. The President had been kept informed; another National